


Sleep Therapy

by cosmoggy



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, pokeshipping week 2016, prompt from tumblr: sleeping together, thought I'd try writing one of my week's pieces instead of drawing all of them!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 05:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8477137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmoggy/pseuds/cosmoggy
Summary: She misses him every time he's gone, so when he's here, she clings.
Prompt for this year's pokeshipping week on tumblr. Day five is 'sleeping together.' I thought I'd try writing some fluff to add to the artwork already on my artblog- please enjoy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! There is nothing even remotely explicit mentioned here, but sexual content is implied. Just a heads up for younger readers who might want to avoid anything like that!  
> If you came here from the link on my artblog, thank you very much! If you're here on AO3 searches, my artblog on tumblr is "konpeito-kun" and this fic is part of my pokeshipping week work. Feel free to see my artblog for some visual pieces and thanks for reading!

Ash snores a little.

It's not bad, not loud or weird sounding. Just a quiet snort every so often and then an offended sounding sniff. It's cute and familiar, something that brings Misty comfort on stressful nights when she's had a rough time running the gym.

Honestly, Misty wouldn't call what  she and Ash had right now a romantic relationship. At least not a discussed one with intent for it  to go anywhere. Friends with benefits was probably the best way to describe them. But that didn't matter right now. Ash's proximity wasn't intoxicating when he was like this, it was warm and heavy like Brock's cooking. Nostalgic, comforting, necessary to her health. A sustenance. 

He'd stopped traveling abroad for a time again. It was happening a little more often these days. He had a couple of tournament trophies under his belt now and was actually on a serious consideration list to be up for an Elite Four position once the application period was over and interviews began. With Agitha retiring (a sweet if someone stern woman, she had become somewhat a mentor to the man cuddling into her back now) it was looking like Ash's dream of pokemon masterhood might actually be a little more reachable sometime soon. The official title required league work experience, and so Ash had been working to get some under his belt. His most recent travels had been as a league inspector keeping gyms up to snuff and such in Kanto and Johto. As they were the regions he held tournament wins in, they were where most of his league interning had taken place thus far.

That meant, of course, that he was here more often now. It had honestly surprised her, though, the first time he'd shown up. It had been raining, he had been sick as a dog and she had ended up closing the gym to nurse him back to health for nearly a week after.

_I just woke up at home all of a sudden and needed to see you so bad._  he'd mumbled feverishly at one point.  _Well next time call ahead, you big dummy_. She'd shot back irritably, but had kisses his forehead tenderly and continued dabbing feversweat off of his face.

More had happened between that point several months ago and now. Kisses, and other things (things that would make her sisters gasp at her) and mostly just a lot of Not Addressing the Real Issue between them. But they had made progress, she supposed, from their childhood bickering to their affectionate banter and now to this, spooning softly while Ash grabbed a good night's sleep in between days on the road where he didn't enjoy camping as much as he used to. (And Misty could steal his shirts and enjoy the smell from his deodorant, something fragrant and woody and very comforting)

Even so, though...while they see each other so much more now, are so much closer to being Something, Misty misses Ash more than ever when he's away. 

Having had him in her arms and on her lips and her name on his breath in sweet nothings has changed how well she does without him around. She doesn't sleep as well, eat as well, focus as well when Ash isn't around to goad or encourage or help her. When he is around, he can sometimes be a real distraction (because that childish little game playing part of him is never going to change, thank Arceus) but mostly he spends his time being functionally helpful to her in order to get more work experience. And of course, to just spend time with her.

It's...domestic at its core. They wake, Ash steals his shirts back from her. She makes breakfast- having had to live on her own without the cooking talent of Violet or the at least acceptable practical skill of her other two sisters for two years when she was younger she's grown pretty good at it out of necessity. She'll never be a Brock Slate or a Delia Ketchum in the culinary field, but her food is good enough to fill them both without making them sick or even making them frown. Practice makes perfect, she'd boasted the first time Ash had looked at her with a stunned face around a bite of one of her meals. In any field.

Then they dress. The Cerulean Gym employees have a uniform. The blue and white swimsuits and warmups are distinct and have the gym's logo on them to make them easy to spot. It's one of the Kanto Region's more famous and popular gyms these days for the good guidance and challenge Misty is reputed to provide. Ash looks good in a competition style swimsuit and he seems to enjoy the water much more these days, so he helps out with some of the public services the gym provides like water pokemon care classes and swimming instruction for young trainers planning to visit seaside areas where they'll need strength in the skill. She's always grateful for this because while all the kids she teaches are eager to learn and seem to love her to bits (which is cute) she does need a break from them now and again and they seem to like Ash as well as they do her.

They even know when he hasn't been around for a while, somehow, and usually a few of them will ask if she misses him, 'because you're distracted again!' She always flushes, but nobody seems to mind it.

_snort._

Ash stirs, and Misty is shaken from her musings about their situation and both the comfort and stress it brings her. A soft smile spreads across her face. Ash is slightly awake now, pressing his nose and mouth into the crook of her neck and humming some song that's been on the radio recently.

After placing a firm kiss between her bare shoulder blades, he murmurs, "I've been drifting in and out and you've been awake every time."

_Are you okay_ , and  _You're worrying me_ are the unspoken truths of the statement. Misty resituates then turns over so she can face her...friend. With benefits. Whatever he is- Ash. She places a kiss on his forehead and says, "I just missed you. Didn't want to sleep and not be aware of you."

It's a confession she wouldn't have made even a month ago, but it stands in the air like a shining beacon, or maybe that's just the goofy smile Ash is giving her now.

"Aw, you  _like_ me." He mumbles giddily, still only half awake. 

Misty erupts into giggles at the drunken sounding tone and buries her face in his warm chest.  _Obviously_ , she wants to tell him. But if she's honest, staying awake enough to still feel the warm arms around her waist and the breathing against her is becoming harder and harder. She's been struggling not to rest because it's been over two weeks since she's seen him, the longest gap in quite some time, and it's nearing the end of the gym season when most trainers are hustling to get their badges and being irritable an disrespectful because hey, they have six or seven or eight now, after this they just need to win the league! It's exhausting.

But when Ash is holding her she feels mellow and relaxed and, under that, appreciated and wanted. His first thing on his to-do list every time he visits is always a nap with her now, and that has only strengthened those feelings.  _I'm home_ , he's said the last few times, jokingly, but Misty wonders how much more of his stuff is here than at his  room in his mom's house now. Maybe she should go ahead and upgrade her bed to something that will fit them both a little bit better. It's nice to sleep so close to him, but one of them ending up on the floor isn't a rare occurrence.

Still, Ash is stirring a little more now. Not wakefully, just readjusting his position. "Don't you have like, six battles lined up for the next couple of days, Mist?"

"Mm..." Misty responds in trepidation and glances at the clock. Two in the morning.  _Oops_.

"Have a rest." Ash says in a soft tone. His eyes are fluttering closed but he's still speaking, "I'll take care of swim lessons and refereeing for you tomorrow. But you need to rest."

"Yeah...sorry." MIsty says. Ash's sleepy tone is contagious and she yawns.

"Mm." Ash responds noncommittally, but he is giving her butterfly kisses and rubbing the small of her back comfortingly. She falls into rest before he falls back asleep, but something sticks with her in her head as she slumbers.

Funnily enough, it's that ridiculous little snort.


End file.
